Full Description
Since its emergence in Italy in 1968, one model of football fandom has become the most dominant in the world: the ultras. Producing choreography, chants, banners and pyrotechnics, ultras represent a highly organised style of fandom that has an increasing global reach and visibility. Over the last fifty years, ultras fandom has spread from Southern Europe across North Africa to Northern and Eastern Europe, South East Asia and North America. Their collective performance not only distinguishes ultras from other football fans, but from many other forms of group behaviour. Focusing on their common form of expression, this book shows how members build an emotional attachment to their club that valorises the insignia of that team while mobilising members against opponents. As a collective with a shared, coherent sense of identity based on an act of consumption, ultras represent an important site of enquiry into masculinity and nationalism in contemporary society.
Contents
Introduction
1 The ultras' performance
2 It's only a game? Centralising emotions in football fandom
3 The formation of the ultras
4 Social media as a space of continuous performance
5 Ultras and the performance of gender
6 Violence and the world of the ultras
7 Ultras and politics
The ultras: a conclusion
References
Index
